Spotlight Series: Reimagining Sanitation

The Spotlight Series is about reimagining. Reimagining what a world with sanitation for every person can look like. This series will shine the spotlight on communities and people who are often left behind in conversations. This week, we are shining the spotlight on trans people, especially in low-income communities globally. We previously talked about what sanitation means for women and gender minorities on International Women’s Day. This week, we wanted to continue the conversation and focus specifically on trans experiences within sanitation and how we can build sanitation that includes and focuses on trans people. At Gather, we reiterate and uphold sanitation as a human right and especially as a social justice issue. If a group of people cannot access quality sanitation, then that is a human rights issue. Every person should have access to sanitation and to ensure this, we need to collectively explore the ways this can be possible.

Toilets may not seem like a big deal, right? We use them every day, we check ourselves in the mirror and wash our hands. However, for trans people, this constant choice between the ‘male’ and ‘female’ toilets can be agonising when you are just trying to go to the toilet. This is even tougher when you bring in the context of a low-income country, where accessing quality sanitation and toilets are difficult for most people. Toilets and sanitation are not neutral spaces; they are sites that are politicised.

Trans access to sanitation is a global issue. It’s especially important to shine the spotlight on trans people of colour globally. The debate on trans people’s access to toilets has been constant within the USA and UK, where the rights to use any designated sanitation facility fluctuates depending on government changes. It is still a widely contested topic, which is still up for debate as you can see from current changes of the UK government’s to the Gender Recognition Act. Trans people have faced violence, ridicule and are often denied access to public sanitation facilities. Trans experiences and inclusion have been often left out of conversations and focus within the WASH sector.

There are a growing number of researchers who aim to shift the focus on trans inclusion within sanitation through their work. Most of the research of trans people’s access to sanitation has been mainly focused in Asia. The paper ‘Transgender-Inclusive Sanitation: Insights from South Asia’ is pivotal in widening the conversation WASH sector to, not only include, but centre trans people. The authors explored what centring trans people’s narratives in sanitation means in South Asia. Trans women and non-binary people in Maharashtra, India, mobilised to raise awareness on quality sanitation in the Palghar district, in trains, rickshaw and traffic stops. Their campaigns helped to end open defecation in 11 villages in this region. These campaigners were able to illustrate to their communities that sanitation access for trans people means sanitation access for all. Nepal’s recent constitution had been deemed as one of the most progressive LGBT platforms. Introducing the concept of a third option for sanitation facilities, in 2012 for non-binary people to feel comfortable in accessing sanitation. Nevertheless, trans communities in Nepal still have to fight to go even further.

Action Points for the Sector

How can the global sanitation sector centre trans people in policy? The authors of ‘Transgender-Inclusive Sanitation: Insights from South Asia’ have presented action points for the sector:

• Allowing trans people to be at the forefront of the process in transforming sanitation research, design, implementation and policy, not just representing trans people’s voices.
• Recognising the diversity and plurality of trans experiences –from Africa, Asia, Latin America, Australia to North America.
• Recognising the violence and marginalisation faced by trans people has to be central to any policy and action needed to transform trans inclusion in sanitation.
• Using respectful language when engaging in work alongside trans people –be mindful of the harm inaccurate language can cause.

This Pride, we need to recognise that all struggles are inextricably tangled together. Freedom and rights for the most marginalised people in society means freedom and rights for all.

Recommended reading list

We want to shine the spotlight on amazing work and research that focuses on trans people’s experiences within the sanitation and WASH sector.

• Transgender-Inclusive Sanitation: Insights from South Asia — Paul Boyce, Sarah Brown, Sue Cavill, Sonalee Chaukekar, Beatrice Chisenga, Mamata Dash, Rohit K Dasgupta, Noemie De La Brosse, Pawan Dhall, Julie Fisher, Marli Gutierrez-Patterson, Oinam Hemabati, Andrés Hueso, Salma Khan, Santa Khurai, Archana Patkar, Priya Nath, Marielle Snel, and Kopila Thapa (2018)
• LGBTI and Sanitation: What We Know and What the Gaps Are –Connie Benjamin and Andrés Hueso (2017)
• Sanitation and Gender — Looking Beyond the Binary — Andrés Hueso, Mamata Dash and Priya Nath (2017)

Raheema